Characterization of Root Transcriptome among Korean Ginseng Cultivars and American Ginseng using Next Generation Sequencing

*Ginseng Research Division, Department of Herbal Crop Research, NIHHS, RDA, Eumseong 369-873, Korea.**Department of Plant Bioscience, Pusan National University, Miryang 627-706, Korea.***Department of Plant Resources, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 361-763, Korea.****National Agrobiodiversity Center, National Academy of Agricultural Science, RDA, Suwon 441-853, Korea.ABSTRACT : The transcriptomes of four ginseng accessions such as Cheonryang (Korean ginseng cultivar), Yunpoong(Korean ginseng cultivar), G03080 (breeding line of Korean ginseng), and P. quinquefolius (American ginseng) was charac-terized. As a result of sequencing, total lengths of the reads in each sample were 156.42 Mb (Cheonryang cultivar), 161.95Mb (Yunpoong cultivar), 165.07 Mb (G03080 breeding line), and 166.48 Mb (P. quinquefolius). Using a BLAST searchagainst the Phytozome databases with an arbitrary expectation value of 1E-10, over 20,000 unigenes were functionally anno-tated and classified using DAVID software, and were found in response to external stress in the G03080 breeding line, as wellas in the Cheonryang cultivar, which was associated with the ion binding term. Finally, unigenes related to transmembranetransporter activity were observed in Cheonryang and P. quinquefolius , which involves controlling osmotic pressure and tur-gor pressure within the cell. The expression patterns were analyzed to identify dehydrin family genes that were abundantlydetected in the Cheonryang cultivar and the G03080 breeding line. In addition, the Yunpoong cultivar and P. quinquefoliusaccession had higher expression of heat shock proteins expressed in Ricinus communis. These results will be a valuableresource for understanding the structure and function of the ginseng transcriptomes.Key Words : Panax ginseng, P. quinquefolius, Transcriptomes, Next Generation Sequencing